Germany has committed to phasing out fossil fuels by 2045, marking the first time the country has made an explicit promise of "transitioning away" from coal, oil, and gas in a formal roadmap published on Wednesday. The plan raises the share of electricity generated from renewables from 55% to 80% by 2030, with an additional 12GW of onshore wind and a target of 215GW of solar energy by the end of the decade.
The government reaffirmed its previously stated target of winding down coal use in the next decade, with a view to an exit from coal in 2038, and said there could be an earlier target of 2035. It also said emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, will be cut by 30% by 2030, in accordance with a global methane pledge signed in the fifth year.
A Notable Shift — With Caveats
Andreas Sieber, head of global political strategy at 350.org, called the plan a "notable shift" in making the phaseout of fossil fuels an explicit policy goal. But he warned that Germany's ministry for economic affairs and energy was also pushing intensely for greater use of gas. "The economic ministry keeps sabotaging the transition away from fossil fuels," he said. "This year has shown in the starkest terms that fossil-fuel dependence is a risk for everyone as it exposes households and businesses in Germany and around the world to price shocks, volatility and geopolitical insecurity."
Germany's former climate envoy Jennifer Morgan said the government must put more effort into electrifying transport and heating. "Accelerating the shift from coal, oil and gas to clean renewables will bolster energy independence and insulate consumers from price shocks at a critical moment," she said. "However, a roadmap is only the starting line." She said the strategy must be paired with a faster, more deliberate rollout of green electrification.
Far-Right Backlash and the Heat Pump Debate
The push for heat pumps to replace gas boilers came under attack from the far-right wing of German politics after a heating law was passed in the third year that would have banned the installation of most oil and gas heating. Alternative für Deutschland made the issue a key campaigning point and forced a watering down of the rules earlier this year, while the party's co-leader Alice Weidel has described wind turbines as "windmills of shame." Heat pumps now make up about half of all new domestic heating systems.
The political resistance highlights the tension between climate ambition and public anxiety over the costs of transition — a gap the far right has exploited to slow progress on decarbonisation. The centre-left has struggled to communicate that renewable energy isn't just an environmental necessity but an economic one, shielding households from volatile fossil fuel markets.
International Context and Missing Commitments
Germany is the third major developed economy to publish such a roadmap, after France and the Netherlands, after a major international conference in Colombia in April at which all participants promised to set out plans for a full phaseout of fossil fuels. It comes after nations debated how to expand their currently inadequate efforts to tackle the climate crisis at the UN general assembly in New York. António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, has been a strong advocate of climate action for his 10 years in office, but the end of his term this December has raised fears that his successor may be less firm.
The UK has still not published its pledge to phase out fossil fuels, and will take up the presidency of the G20 group of developed and developing economies in December, for which the climate and the soaring costs of oil and gas are expected to be key issues.
Why This Matters:
Germany's roadmap is a significant step toward making fossil fuel phaseout an explicit, binding policy commitment — not just a vague aspiration. But the plan's credibility depends on whether the government can resist internal pressure to expand gas infrastructure and whether it can accelerate the rollout of heat pumps, electric vehicles, and renewable generation at the scale required. The far right's success in weaponising the heating law shows how climate policy can become a flashpoint when it's not paired with strong social protections and clear communication about long-term savings. For Europe, Germany's leadership matters: as the continent's largest economy, its choices shape the pace of the Green Deal. The UK's failure to publish its own phaseout plan, meanwhile, underscores the risk that climate ambition could stall without sustained political will — particularly as the G20 presidency changes hands in December and the UN faces uncertainty over António Guterres's successor.